Goal met: Online push raises money for damaged Pergola

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SEATTLE -- The historic Pioneer Square pergola sustained about $25,000 in damage during the post-Super Bowl game celebrations Sunday night, but taxpayers won't be footing the bill after a successful crowd funding effort raised money to repay the damage.

Some rowdy revelers climbed on the structure and broke nearly 20 panes of glass and tagged it with graffiti Sunday night. Tuesday morning, Amanda Quinn launched the online fundraising campaign to try to raise the $25,000.

"Polite or not, there was a party foul in Pioneer Square. Seattle's historic Iron Pergola was damaged to the tune of $25,000. Now it is time to clean up after ourselves, because this is truly #HowSeattleRiots," Quinn wrote, in reference to the humorous Twitter hashtag that was poking fun at the politeness of most of the celebrations.

As of late Tuesday morning, the campaign had raised nearly $2,200 of the $25,000 goal, with most donating a symbolic $12. But as word of the campaign spread, the total was over $13,000 by mid afternoon.

As the totals continued to climb over $15,000, Quinn announced the Seattle Parks received a $10,000 donation and that the goal had been met.

"We are AT THE GOAL!!! Thank you so much!!!!! We'll be posting more information and thanking everyone who participated. Fantastic. Thank you, 12th Man!" Quinn wrote.

Seattle Parks spokeswoman, Joelle Hammerstad, says each pane has to be specially made to historic specifications. In addition, she says climbers damaged copper flashing, and the whole thing has to be spray-washed and painted to clean up graffiti.

The Pergola was originally built to cover an underground restroom. The whole structure was rebuilt after it was knocked down by a truck in 2001.

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